Restoration Shaman – Best in Slot 3.1

Once again we find ourselves with new content and as a result new upgrades. Our tier sets await us as well as many more foes that must be conquered. That means it’s time for another best in slot post for my fellow raiding restoration shamans. Before we get started I would like to say just a couple things.

First, this is my opinion. Use this as a guide or not at all, but this is based on my value of the stats we use.

Second, please feel free to make your own list or suggestions, after all it is your character and you should equip it as you see fit.

Waist: I’m going to give this to [Windchill Binding] This will cost you 28 Emblems and it’s a great upgrade from the Naxx 25 loot. If you want more crit you can go with [Blue Belt of Chaos] but I’m finding the price rather inflated to have it crafted right now.

Trinket: Again a lot of options my top picks are [Scale of Fates] – Thorim 25. [Living Ice Crystals] – Malygos 25. [Energy Siphon] – Flame Leviathan 10.Ã‚Â [Pandora’s Plea] – Mimron 25, Ã‚Â Ã‚Â [Je’Tze’s Bell] – BoE World Drop. I’m normally not a fan of on use trinkets, I prefer ones that give passive buffs most times, but Energy Siphon and Living Ice Crystal’s passive mp5 make them worth picking up alone. The on use effect of each is icing on the cake.

Main Hand: I saved this for last. First weapon that should be on EVERY healer’s list of wants is [Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings], Amazing mace with good stats. The proc as we’ve seen from the blue posts is crazy good. This will be at the top of everyone’s list. Second to this mace I vote [Guiding Star] – Razorscale 25, for best in slot runner up.

Looking at this I’m sure you will see it’s got a decent mix of MP5, haste and crit, while maintaining good intellect for replenishment and good spellpower. Some of the choices seem predictable, such as the tier 8.5 set pieces. The four pieces I selected I feel offer the most bang for the buck and allow you to gather the four piece bonus, which is worth it’s weight in gold.

If you’re looking to place value on items and stats, and figure out what weight works for you, you can use Shaman_hep, an addon from Stassart which allows you to calculate a miryiad of information from your combat logs to help lend a hand figuring out what’s best for you.

So now you’ve seen my list, What do you think are the best in slot items for Restoration Shaman?

Comments

Great article. I always look forward to seeing what others consider Best in Slot. I’d be very interested to see what your opinions on Best in Slot items are when restricted to items available from the new 10-man raids.

Even though I do disagree with some choices here, I’ll just point out this mace – Constellus – http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45612. It’s a drop from Algalon, but with the recent changes Blizz has made, it has a chance of dropping from other hard modes as well.

Its higher spell power and a socket make it superior to the Guiding Star. I’d consider the dagger from YS-25 better than it too, but seems you weren’t going for pieces without mp5 on them.

My best in slot list mostly varies in that I’d take less mp5 and more haste for most purposes. Examples like the T8 head piece, Sartharion cloak, etc…

Of course, that said, different encounters benefit from different stats, which is why you cannot really define one best in slot list. After all, if you are looking to truly min-max your character for every encounter, you should be carrying more than one set (more like 3) already.

I agree that you should absolutely add PandoraÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Plea to your list. Scale of Fates is extremly good, but you might want let the caster DPS pick it up first. Pandora’s Plea on the other hand is an item you should easily be able to get, it just isn’t attractive for many healer classes. The mana regen you’ll get through replenishment should be even better than with pure mp5 trinkets, the proc is very strong.

Thanks for all the responses guys. Like I said this is just my opinion, and your mileage may vary, but I’m pleased people have their lists started =D.

@drug I do agree that pandora’s plea should be on there and was in my original draft (some how I seem to have miss edited it out) so I’m going to toss that back up there.

@Rhukko I don’t know about that, in practical application I’ve seen a more significant boost in my regen with siphon and crystals over soul of the dead. I was pushing almost 40% crit when using it in a raid and just wasn’t seeing the returns. Maybe I was just unlucky, I’ve heard of people getting long stretches of trinkets bottoming out on them.

@Jossalin Those are all good contenders as well.

@Boni: Ask and you shall receive. I’ll do a 10 man exclusive gear list in a day or so. The ironic thing is some of the absolute best items (IMO) for shaman come from 10 mans.

The beauty of shaman gearing now is we have a lot of options depending on how we want to build our characters. Realistically we’re going to be carrying multiple sets of items around. Already my bags are filled with conditional gear for certain fights just so I can eek out that little extra edge.

**Intell: Gives you Mp5 via Replentishment due to a larger mana pool (this is given to you from Shadow priests, Ret paladins and hunters) Also, gives you spell power and crit. It was the best stat and still is – period.
**Spell power: This increases the healing of your spells. Don’t get it? Stop playing a Resto class.
**Haste: Ulduar requires fast-action healing. This now takes a SLIGHT priority over Mp5. Read below for clarification.
**Mp5: With Ulduar gear granting more and more intell, Mp5 is taking a lesser and lesser emphasis. This stat remains to be the staple stat of resto shamans.. stack it up to about 400 Mp5 (while casting) for Ulduar. Much more than that will cause your healing output to suffer more than you want it to.
**Crit: Used to be a stat that I preferred over Haste. Recount has proved that deaths due to splatter damage (over all raid damage) were a rotation issue that crit could not solve. The answer was haste. You will get all the crit you need from uld (and Naxx) gear and a good resto spec. Do Not socket this stat.
**Stamina and Spirit: Don’t socket these. Nuff, said. Vastly more stam than you will ever need comes on your gear. Spirit for a shaman is like Intellect for a warrior – totally useless.

I will provide answers and/or data if requested.

Pandora’s Plea is by FAR and FAR the best-in-slot trinket for a resto shaman. How you could have missed this, I will never know. If you could get two of them, I’d suggest doing it. Sadly, this is not an option.
Living Ice Crystals = 43Mp5 and a 3K heal
Pand’s Plea = 71.28Mp5, 1782 Mana, 18 base Hl Pwr and 850 Hl Pwr on proc
…not even a question…

Lowering the emphasis on Mp5 in your future guides (as better and better gear becomes available) will increase said guide’s accuracy and helpfulness. Just my opinion, Mayne. All-in-all, i love your posts. I read out of interest far more than I post :

Keep in mind that there are at least two Resto Shammy camps out there at the moment–one focused on the power of CH and the other on the power of RT/LHW (and therefore focused on raid healing versus single-target healing, respectively.) While the above list may prove helpful to some, it is important to note that it will not provide optimal stats for both healing roles.

Ultimately, for those like me who are asked to serve as tank healer in some fights and raid healer in others, it behooves us to maintain two gear sets–one stacked for haste and longevity, the other stacked with as much crit and as little mp5 as possible. (For me personally, this means I have one set that brings my CH down to < 1.8sec and another set that puts me at ~40% crit raid-buffed.)

That being said, I always appreciate the guidance and discussion fostered by such lists as these. And it is certainly easier to critique than to create.

Epic

About me

My name is Matticus and this is my World of Warcraft blog. Here you can read about my thoughts regarding healing as a priest. As a former guild master, I also write about guild and raid related topics. The blog has expanded to include thoughts from other regular contributors. The aim of this blog is to help you grow and improve. My unending goal is to have something relevant and useful in every post. or more, you can check out my columns on Blizzard Watch. Visit theGuildmasters to talk shop with other GMs, raid leaders, and officers. My current guild is on Kel'Thuzad US.